The Suffolk County Council has confirmed that its state aid supported £40 million contract with BT, which aims to make superfast fibre broadband services available to 85-90% of local homes and businesses by the end of 2015, has connected its first street cabinet and will now be able to connect 16 areas by September 2013 (3 months ahead of schedule).
Readers might recall that the Better Broadband to Suffolk project only recently announced its first upgrade locations (here) and apparently BTOpenreach’s engineers, which have been busy completing their survey of the region, have since discovered that some smaller parts of the county will be easier to connect than first assumed.
As a result 2,500 premises in 16 locations should now go live by the end of September 2013 and some homes in Lowestoft, Belstead and Stowmarket are already able to place orders. The other communities that will receive a connection three months earlier than expected include parts of Kesgrave, Hadleigh, Whatfield, Bury St Edmunds, Sudbury, Felixstowe and on the Suffolk-Essex border near Manningtree (specific rollout areas below).
Mark Bee, SCC Leader, said (Heart):
“Switching on the first cabinets is a truly significant milestone in the Better Broadband for Suffolk programme and is very much the start of great things to come.
Faster broadband will boost Suffolk’s economy, help us to attract new businesses to the county and create new jobs. It will also make accessing the internet far easier for people’
I’m immensely proud of what we have achieved in such a short space of time and look forward to seeing the rollout completed within the next two and a half years.”
Specific ‘up to’ 80Mbps FTTC Rollout Areas (Aug – Sept 2013)
•Weston Road; Cotmer Rd; Mayfield Road, Lowestoft
•Riverside Industrial Park; Old Wherstead Road, Belstead
•Edmonton Road, Kesgrave
•Lady Lane; Whatfield, Hadleigh
•Springfield Road; Moreton Ind Est; Buttermarket area, Bury St Edmunds
•Creeting Road, Stowmarket
•Lucas Rd, Sudbury
•Gainsborough Road, Felixstowe
•School Lane, Brantham
•The Street, Bramford
This is only the start of the scheme and BTOpenreach are likely to come back later on in the project to further expand coverage in the above areas. The change means that Suffolk’s scheme will now bring superfast broadband to around 10,000 homes and businesses by the end of 2013 (this includes the previously announced rollout areas).
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